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After a wild morning, offensive lineman Austin Barry signs with ASU

(Sun Devil Athletics Photo)
(Sun Devil Athletics Photo)

Austin Barry is on his finals schedule at J.W. North High School, which means his zero-period class starts at 7 a.m. Because of the power of Zoom schooling, there’ no need to spend hours getting ready or eating breakfast or driving. So Barry set his alarm for 6:50 a.m.

Arizona State didn’t wait until then. Looking through his phone, Barry starts rattling off the missed calls he woke up to.

“(Co-defensive coordinator Antonio Pierce called me at) 4:47 a.m., 4:50 and 5:23. Shortly after, coach Breneman (offensive analyst Adam Breneman) called me at 5:55. And then coach Pierce called me again at 5:58,” Barry said.

“Then they started calling my mom and she wasn’t answering either because she was also asleep. A little bit past 6, they got her up, got her on the phone and talking.”

Added Pierce: “He had about 20 missed calls from me and I told him to make sure his butt was up at 7:01 a.m. to sign that letter.”

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The Sun Devils needed to keep calling. They needed to tell Austin Barry they wanted him to sign on Wednesday’s Signing Day and be a part of their 2021 class at its onset. They also needed to call to make sure they got to Barry’s ear before other suitors after his services, namely Cal and Stanford, which, Barry said, also called multiple times Wednesday morning.


Let’s go backward for a second.


Barry was a three-star offensive lineman from Southern California. As a 6-foot-6, 270-pound offensive lineman, he fit all the criteria of a big-bodied lineman the Sun Devils were looking for. Barry committed in late July with the Twitter captain, “I’m 1000% in!”

A couple of months later, as optimism for ASU’s 2021 class peaked, the Sun Devils parted ways with a few recruits in the class. Barry was told to send in some more film. He said ASU wanted to continue to evaluate him, to make sure he was still “the right fit” before they’d sign him in February, during the second period.


“Initially, it kind of irritated me,” Barry said. “Some people may say like, ‘Oh, they didn’t want to sign you until February, doesn’t that make you question anything?’ It rubs you the wrong (way, but, at the same time, once they explain what was going on, you build that trust back.”


It was Cal and Stanford, Barry said, that tried using that line of thinking to sway him off his ASU commitment, to “try and use it as leverage.”


“I’m not that easy,” Barry said with a chuckle.


Plus, he said, all the calls ASU made at the crack of dawn showed their commitment to him. All the coaches were huddled together at the facility and passed the phone around to speak with different recruits. When Barry’s mom hit the lights and passed the phone to him, he was still blinking and squinting, trying to figure out what the heck was going on.


Then he heard the voice of ASU coach Herm Edwards,


“When they woke me up, they told me the news straight away,” Barry said. “They just said, ‘We need you up because we’re going to be signing you today. It was like an early Christmas.

“I feel like it’s the right thing, and I feel like they are really holding up their end of the bargain. I’m where I’m needed and where I want to be.”


ASU is glad to have reeled him in.


“(He) fits our DNA,” Edwards said. “Here’s something I like about the guy, he’s tough. You turn the tape on, and he’s a tough football player, now. He likes contact; he’s not shying away from it.”


Edwards was asked about a picture Barry shared on social media when he committed almost five months ago. It was Edwards, decked on in ASU gear, with his arm wrapped around Barry, who was a grinning teenager wearing a Michigan shirt.


On Wednesday, he became a Sun Devil.


“Once I signed, it felt good,” Barry said. “And I haven’t look back at all yet and haven’t even thought that it was a mistake. I’m happy with what I’m doing.”


And what should ASU fans expect from Barry?


“When it’s a run play, I’m going after guys, I’m trying to bury you every play,” he said. “When it’s a pass, I can play aggressively when I need to, but, at the same time, I can drop back and make sure nobody is going to hit my quarterback.”

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